If you or your doctor have concerns about the function of your heart or other similar organ you may embark on a multi-step evaluation that may include many different tests for example a resting 12-lead ECG test, an ECG stress test, a 24-hour holter monitor evaluation and or a 30-day MCOT monitoring. These tests and others utilize many different and specialized tools due to some of the conflicting requirements of the tests or the equipment. For example, some of the tests must be done in a doctor's office or a hospital or lab because of the cost and power consumption of the test tools and it would be unrealistic to conduct a 30-day MCOT analysis with the patient confined to the hospital, or worse, the doctor's office.
Some of the evaluation tests are also challenging because of the limitations enforced by the ability of the medical system to derive adequate compensation for the work necessary. For example, an MCOT monitor analysis of a patient may be conducted for up to 30 days. The equipment to perform this monitoring and analysis must be portable, thus low-power, durable and accurate. The necessity of low-power and durable equipment forces the equipment designers to cut corners on real-time data analysis. As a result, many false positive events generate excessive data that requires expensive medical professional time to review. Thus the doctor ordering the test (and the insurance company looking over his shoulder) must be cognizant that the test, and the analysis of the resulting data could cost more than anyone will be paid to perform the test.